With the upsurge in eCommerce, brick-&-mortar stores have been struggling to bring in new customers, and even to retain the old ones. They are constantly striving to come up with new, innovative ways to connect with customers. The main challenge is to provide a better experience than eCommerce. In this process of finding way-outs, digital signs has influenced them a big time for its many-sided benefits.

The retail digital signage brings the opportunity to communicate anything anytime with the prospects, without having to draw them towards in-store salespersons or inquiry counters.

Whether it’s a small-scale retail store or a renowned chain, digital displays opens up a multitude of new ways to tell a brand story by fusing the physical and digital shopping experience.

Check out a few interesting facts on retail digital signage

1. Digital signage installations for showrooms and stores are increasing by 40% each year and aren’t going to slow down soon.

2. Retail is the industry where the optimum benefits of digital signage can be leveraged. It’s already making up 25% of the overall sales for a brand.

3. The retail sector is expected to reach a valuation of USD 10 billion by 2023 because retail digital signage will save a lot of other expenses and make operational efficiency even better!

4. Digital signage content impacts the buyers 2.5 times more than static signage displays.

5. A study by Nielsen revealed that out of 120 grocers who used digital signage in their stores, 80% of them saw as much as a 33% boost in sales

6. A study on 3,000 shoppers revealed that 82% of purchasing decisions are made while in a store, and 62% of the shoppers make impulse buys while shopping. Digital signage stays responsible for this to a high degree.

7. 59% of shoppers believe that brands must provide cutting-edge digital experiences to keep them engaged.

15 best ways to use storefront signs & in-store retail digital signage

Despite offering endless scopes to enhance the in-store experience for customers, the potential of digital signage is not yet fully being explored by business owners.

So,let’s explore some interesting ideas:

1. Attractive digital signage window displays

How tiring is it to rearrange those bags or shoes at the store window every time a customer leaves dismantling them from the racks? It’s too much of a headache! And if the in-store salespeople are a bunch of lazy folks, stay assured they won’t even bother to rearrange them.

Result? You’ll end up making the prospects on the street frown at your store distastefully. Forget about making some business with that awful-looking window display!

Switch to digital storefront signs or window displays to get rid of his hassle. Window displays influence about 24% of shoppers to make purchase decisions. These are the most effective tools to make your customers, stop, look back and enter your store to buy.

Looking to increase sales and beat your competitors easily? Going digital with your retail window displays can help. Unlike traditional static displays, digital displays constantly capture your audience’s attention with moving images and information. This increased engagement can entice customers to move into your store and make a purchase.

You also get to update the digital content regularly according to your sales focus. Based on special days or offers, change your content instantly with a screen content management software and witness some real footfall into your store.

2. Upsell with innovative product demonstration

Online shopping offers an easy solution for product comparison that helps consumers buy items in peace. But with in-store purchasing, it’s more hectic for both customers and the staff.

How hectic would it be for a shopper to go to a salesperson and ask for similar products or other items in the same price range? Imagine a customer buying a microwave oven for the first time. How many questions do you think might have? Endless!

If you are looking to promote special offers and discounts,Your in-store retail digital signage system can come to the rescue here. You can showcase your best products, their features, similar items, and even ‘how to use’ guides.

You can also implement interactive digital signage at your retail store and engage your customers even more with your brand. They can slide, scroll, click and find out the most suitable products for them on their own from the interactive retail kiosks. It will not only reduce your cost of hiring eligible staff but will also help persuade your customers to buy.

3. Offer retailtainment

Talk about your products in a unique way by blending information and entertainment. Did you know 50% of men and 70% of women consider shopping a form of entertainment and something to share with friends and family? So, why not put more of those fun blobs on their platter?

Amuse your customers with a dose of sports news, social media posts, videos from YouTube and music from live TV channels. Keep the fun going with real-time market trends and updates on in-store digital signage.

4. Create an urgency to buy

An attractive deal leads to impulse buying for many customers. In fact, 54% of US consumers have admitted that they’ve spent $100 or more on impulse purchases. So, if you use your retail display board to display the current deals or discount offers, you’ll definitely sell more.

You can create the need for buying by announcing a limited period offer with a countdown timer. Trigger your consumer’s desire to purchase by showing your stock lasts for just a few more hours. You will be surprised by the number of sales happening with this in-store signage trick.

5. Run promotions and ad campaigns

Product launches, product promotions, and ad campaigns— all of these you can run on your digital signage inside the showroom and connect with dozens of consumers at a time, which was impossible to do with traditional signs or billboards.

Why should brand commercials be available to the prospects sitting and watching TV at home? Let the customer, inside or outside the store also catch that promo by running it on all your retail display boards. Schedule your promos and ads at certain intervals and spread brand awareness strategically.

6. Gather customer feedback

Do you have a good base of long-term happy customers? Great! When they visit your store next time, make sure they give you their feedback directly via the interactive digital display at your retail store.

Call for rating & feedback with an interesting image or animated figure on the screen. Customers love it when you value their opinions. And this way you will not only engage your audience better and improve customer satisfaction, but you will also gather a good amount of positive responses.

7. Let UGC do some magic

The feedback you gather from interactive kiosks and the ones you receive on various other platforms like social media pages and Google business profiles— showcase those on your retail digital signage. Why? Because you want to build trust and connect with your prospects genuinely.

User-generated content (UGC) has a great impact on people. 93% of marketers acknowledge that consumers tend to trust content created by customers more than the content created by brands themselves. And almost 50% of millennials make their decision to buy an item based on recommendations from their acquaintances. So, UGC has a great hold on your customers since it functions as a prominent reference. Display UGC on your retail digital signage screens and make it more business efficient.

8. Display QR codes on retail digital signage

Uses of QR codes are not limited to payments these days. See what more you can do with it.

• Keep a QR code on your in-store screens that take your customers directly to your online store when they scan them.

• You can even help them download your mobile app with the QR code scan. They won’t have to go to the play store and search for the app. So, it will save time.

• Take your customers to your website landing page and let them explore your brand better.

• QR codes can take your customers to personalized URLs providing a direct email or messaging facility. This way they can communicate with the support team.

• You can tweak your creative side a bit more and come up with customized QR codes for each of the store sections. For example, in the section or alley in your store that sells beauty products, you can keep a tailor-made QR code by that section. When the customers scan it, they will get to see the products available in that alley, details of each product like ingredients and directions for use, and the price for each.

• Last but not the least, you can, rather you must have a QR code for your digital product catalog. Once the consumers scan it, they can have a closer look at all the products your brand has to offer.

9. Deliver a personalized experience

Consumers go crazy with the brands that provide them with personalized experiences. Surprisingly, 70% of millennials are happily allowing retailers to track their shopping behavior and browsing habits to receive a better and more personalized experience.

So, study your audience. Collect useful data on demography and analyze the purchase patterns of your consumers. Accordingly, you can set offers and showcase your products on the in-store digital signage displays. It gives your communication efforts a personal touch.

10. Contests & gamification

Yes, gamification can really impact your retail store business. And we don’t mean the social media contests here. You can use your in-store interactive display as a contest screen.

Run a fun contest based on fashion brands, favorite comic characters, or whatever you think will engage your customers in the contest. Declare a good reward for the contest winner (maybe a best-selling product of your brand).

Make sure you mention the day on which the result of the contest will be declared. More than half of the consumers who took part will come back to see the results, believe us. And when they do return, they will be more than happy to buy a few more items on display.

Let your customers play simple & fun games on your store sign display screens. Offer instant rewards like a 20% discount on certain items or a Buy 2 get 1 Free deal with the games.

For example, if you have a puzzle game, customers can win the offer if they complete the puzzle successfully within a certain period. Or, if you have a racing game, offer the deal if a customer scores above 80 or 85. Like this, you can excite your audience to make purchases.

According to a study, the stores that engage their consumers constantly through contests and games have witnessed a 60% increase in email clicks and a 50% increase in web traffic and return rates.

11. Point-of-sale advertising

Entice your customers to buy new products as add-on at the billing counters and other points-of-sale. Install small digital screens at the POS and display a few items with bright appealing visuals.

Consumers will tend to buy some of those while they wait for their turn to pay. This way you can turn your point-of-sales into point-of-purchase easily and drive some more business tactically.

12. Self-service checkout kiosks

You will no longer have to pay an employee every month just to stand at the counter and collect payment from your customers. In this digital era, self-service check-outs are trending. It helps buyers save time too.

Many times it happens that customers are at the counter but the staff member has gone out for lunch. Now there’s a long annoying wait that often leads to less frequent store visits later. Spurn these problems with self-service kiosks.

Customers can scan their products easily and make payments on their own, without any staff member’s interference.

And if you can deploy ‘click and collect’, you will be able to make customers happy like never before.

What is a ‘click and collect’ service? It is a hybrid e-commerce model that allows you to choose your shopping items online (from a website or app) and pick them up at a centralized collection point at the retail outlet. The consumers will interact with a self-service kiosk at that collection point to receive the items and pay for the same. Totally hassle-free!

13. Provide customers with a queue-less store experience

When customers wait in line, clueless about when their turn will come, it makes them perceive the wait time more than what it actually is. Just because they are frustrated with the long line, they consider 5 minutes to be nearly 20 minutes.

Using a queue management app, retail stores can easily manage floor crowding. In-store retail TVs can display queue tickets in real time. It helps consumers understand their wait time in the queue.

Happy customers with reduced perceived wait time lead to more profit and improved brand image.

14. Help customers gain product knowledge

If you are selling complex items like electronics or smart gadgets, you can turn your digital signage boards into learning tools for your consumers.

Play product demo, installation process, and special features of the products in videos or motion graphics. Make the content educative and engaging.

You can also run videos on product maintenance tips and tricks and help customers learn how to uphold it correctly. For example, if you are dealing in Japanese Matcha Tea, your customers will surely like to know how to store matcha green tea properly and increase its shelf life.

15. Include wayfinding maps

If your customers get annoyed finding various store destinations, you will lose them at the storefront, losing the chance to impress them with other signage content you have strategically designed so far.

Use your digital signage displays boards as building directories or wayfinding kiosks to help customers navigate through your store easily. This will perk up your in-store environment and will contribute to brand building through customer satisfaction. And with touchscreen 3d wayfinding solutions you can now pull in a few more benefits of retail display screens.

Real-life examples of brands using retail digital signage innovatively

Now that you know how retail digital signage can maximize your customer engagement and bring more business, take a look at its innovative applications and get inspired.

1. Sephora collaborated with ModiFace to offer a virtual makeover simulator.

The technology tracks the customer’s face in real-time. It then allows customers to try on makeup virtually via the digital signage screen. They can select, for example, an eye shadow shade, and the color will instantly be visible on the customer’s face on the screen.

It is nothing but the digital signage version of the ‘try and buy’ marketing scheme. But, this brings a greater shopping experience to Sephora customers and uplifts the brand image extensively. Learn more about it here.

2. Broke Bikes started allowing customers to design their own bikes by choosing custom design specifications.

This clever marketing idea also allowed the customers to share the customized design through social media. The digital signage screen at the retail store was turned into an interactive design canvas for the consumers.

This brilliant engagement program provided a sense of connection and personalization to the customers. The experience was even more enhanced by live social posts from Twitter and Instagram.

It’s the perfect tool for customers to instantly share the photos of their bike creations (the custom design) on the social media wall. This also helped the brand with more sales with instant social media sharing. Learn more about this digital signage use here.

Summing it up

So, why will the above-mentioned retail digital signage solutions will bring you more business?

• You will create an overall positive brand image that’s rich and impressive.

• You’ll persuade customers successfully to make a purchase.

• Your brand will move ahead of the competitors with inventive solutions.

• You will be gaining more profit by upselling and cross-selling.

• Most importantly, you will contribute to the goodwill of the business.

If you are a retailer, don’t wait to implement these digital signage tips. Start with Pickcel today and get more returns soon.